


Priorities

by smirkovskiy



Category: Dancing with the Stars (US) RPF
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Break Up, Emotional Infidelity, F/M, Jealousy, Not!Fic, future!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:41:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6331423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smirkovskiy/pseuds/smirkovskiy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“She’s always gonna come first.”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Priorities

**Author's Note:**

> This has probably been done many times before.
> 
> This is set in some universe where S19 either never happened or hadn’t happened yet. So there’s no mention of JP. Sorry. I can only deal with one rumored Val GF at a time.

Val sighs, grits his teeth, and rubs a hand over his face. “Babe. What—what are you doing?”

Jenna drags her black duffel bag out of the closet and heaves it onto the bed with a grunt. She leans heavily against it and turns back toward him, lancing him with eye daggers. 

“What do you think?”

“Didn’t we talk about this? I thought this was settled,” he says, letting his iPhone drop from his hands onto the stripped-down bed.

“It’s never gonna be settled, Val,” she says, turning and heading back over to the closet. She starts yanking her dresses off the hangers and brings them over to the bag on the end of the bed. “She’s always gonna come first.”

“ _Who_? Who are you even talking about?” Val yells, waving his hands at her in exasperation. 

Jenna just stares back at him, eyebrows arched, looking very unimpressed. “Don’t pull this shit with me,” she snaps, pulling her mouth into a sneer. She jabs a finger in his direction. “You know damn well who I’m talking about. Just _check your Insta._ ”

Val blinks, fights the urge to dive for his iPhone to actually _check his Insta_. “Zendaya? This is about _Zendaya_?”

“The hero finally catches on,” Jenna says, voice dripping with sarcasm. She turns her attention back to her duffel bag.

“I thought you were just pissed I haven’t been spending that much time with you,” Val says, feeling lost. He flounders. “Babe, you know I’ve been busy—”

“Well, that too, but seriously, Val. Come on. I’m not blind,” Jenna says, stamping her feet and practically growling in frustration. “You just don’t _get_ it. It’s always ‘Z this, Z that.’ How’s that supposed to make _me_ feel?”

“Zendaya and I are friends, Jenna. You know that, you were _totally cool_ with that. Didn’t bother you one bit, you said,” Val accuses, flinging her words back at her.

“Don’t you dare use what I said against me,” Jenna says, crossing her arms over her chest. “That was before I realized how—how weirdly close you two are.”

“There is nothing weird about our relationship.” Val closes his eyes and rips his hands through his hair. “She’s a part of my life. You knew that going in.”

“You text each other every day,” Jenna says, ticking off all of Val’s apparent failures as a boyfriend on her fingers. “You have to wedge her into every single convo you have. She practically sends you half-naked selfies for your approval—”

“You clearly know nothing about Zendaya or you’d know she’d never do that,” Val interrupts.

“You have fucking Skype dates with her, for fuck’s sake,” Jenna continues, lowering her hands. “Please tell me how I’m supposed to compete with that. I’m here, I live with you, and I don’t even see you as much as she does.”

“I get it. I really do. But it’s not like that,” Val insists, throwing his hands out to Jenna. “What do I gotta do to convince you you’re the only one I got eyes for?”

Jenna glances briefly at her duffel bag, sitting on the end of the bed, before looking back at Val. 

“Take a step back,” she says, crossing her arms back over her chest. “Tell her you’ve got other things going on, you can’t be in her life twenty-four-seven like you used to.”

“You want me to ditch her,” Val concludes, refusing to allow his voice to betray his emotions.

“I want you to re-prioritize,” Jenna says, sounding almost sympathetic. “You don’t have to cut her off completely. She just can’t be the most important woman in your life.”

“My mom’s the most important woman in my life,” Val deadpans.

“You know what I mean,” Jenna sighs, rolling her eyes at him and shaking her head.

“Look, I come in peace,” Val says, holding his hands out to Jenna as he approaches her. “I do love you. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of showing that, but I guess not. But you’re right. I gotta get my shit together.”

Jenna wraps her arms around his waist. “So you’ll try? For me?”

“Screw that,” Val says, pressing his mouth against her forehead. “I’ll do. You’re my number one, babe.”

Jenna tips her head up, kissing him gently on the lips. “Then show me.”

Val returns the kiss, tightens his arms around Jenna, and only feels a little bit guilty that he’s lying to her.

-

Val retrieves his phone and fires off a text to Zendaya while Jenna is in the bathroom, putting her makeup and toothbrush back in place in the medicine cabinet.

_Hey babe, we gotta talk. It’s important. Call me when you get this._

He sighs, guilt unraveling in his gut, taps **SEND** , and sets his phone back on the nightstand beside the bed.

Jenna emerges from the bathroom and brushes her hands off on her jeans. “So, I think that’s everything,” she says, smiling at him.

“All moved back in?” Val pats the empty spot next to him.

“Yep.” Jenna crawls onto the mattress and slots in against his side. 

Jenna presses her head against his shoulder and Val reaches up to stroke her dark hair.

“We’re gonna make this work,” Val tells her, stilling his hand.

Just then, his phone starts blasting ‘Bottle You Up’ and Val nearly jumps out of his skin. He grabs the phone and thumbs the volume down, stealing a guilty glance Jenna’s way. She’s looking at him, feline eyes flickering with what he thinks is jealousy.

“Is it _her_?” Jenna’s tone is icy.

“Probably. I need to have this conversation with her, Jenna,” he says.

“Okay, okay. I’ll leave you to it, then,” she says, relenting. Jenna gets out of bed and pads down the hallway, letting the bedroom door shut gently behind her.

Val closes his eyes hard. “Z?”

“Hey, bro. What’s up?” Zendaya sounds hyper and giggly, like she’s overdosed on sugar or something. “Everything all right?”

“Actually, not really,” Val says, rubbing a hand over his forehead and through his curls. “I—I don’t know how to say this, but... We can’t talk as much anymore.”

“What?” Zendaya laughs incredulously. “Whaddaya mean ‘we can’t talk as much anymore,’ Val?”

“I mean... It’s causing issues with my—my girl,” he says.

“Jenna,” Zendaya says, breaking off her name like a curse.

“Yeah, Jenna. She doesn’t like that we’re still basically joined at the hip and I just... I’m sorry, you have to know how sorry I am. But I need to try for her.”

“You’re saying you need to stop being my friend to make your girlfriend happy,” Zendaya finishes coolly.

“Not like that. You make it sound like I’m friend-dumping you or something,” Val quips.

“You kinda are,” she says.

“I’m not! I’m just saying, we need to take a step back. She’s right, we’re always in each other’s business. It looks weird to people on the outside. It looks weird to _Jenna_.”

“Um, have you tried reminding her we’re _just friends_ ,” Zendaya hisses and—fuck, now _she’s_ mad at him. He can’t ever seem to do anything right, even when he’s certain his heart’s in the right place. “Seems simple enough to me. ‘Hey, J, me and Z are just _fam forever_. Nothin’ weird goin’ on over here.’ ”

“I can’t just tell her, I have to show her.”

“And that somehow means you have to, to... Whatever,” Zendaya huffs. “You’ve already got your mind made up. Good luck, Val. I think you guys are gonna need it.”

“Z, wait, I—”

_Click_.

Val stares down at his iPhone in disbelief. She hung up on him.

He tosses his phone away, blindly, and savors the satisfactory _crunch_ it makes when it hits the wall.

-

Val sees the 100-plus Twitter notifications when he finally breaks his social media blackout a couple days later, and silently curses himself. 

It can only be one thing, one person, really.

Val taps the screen of his new iPhone and waits, dreading what he’ll find.

**@crazy4dayaNval:** omg wait till @iamvalc sees this!!!

Val sucks back a breath and scrolls down.

**@valdayaofthedolls:** . **@iamvalc** omg wut did u do !!!!!! RT **@zendaya:** I’m in heaven with my boyfriend  http://instagram.com/p/jWqKxzVy_X

Val swallows hard and clicks the link to the pic.

Trevor and Zendaya are sitting on a park bench holding hands and gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes. The hand of Trevor’s that isn’t occupied by Zendaya’s is tucking a tendril of hair behind her ear. 

It’s very sweet and romantic and it makes Val’s stomach churn.

Val chokes down the feeling that threatens to rise in his gut and quickly closes the app. He even thinks about chucking this phone too, but decides against it.

He scrubs his hands over his face and breathes in deeply before letting it go.


End file.
